The U.S. Border Patrol says it is overwhelmed by a shift in human smuggling routes, with hundreds of migrants from faraway countries like Senegal, Bangladesh and China being dropped in a remote desert area in Arizona.
The agency says it deployed many of its officers assigned to the port of entry to help Border Patrol agents apprehend and process asylum-seeking migrants along the southern border.
Once in shelter, they can access a county clinic exclusively for migrants. But the currently 3,300 people in limbo at police stations and airports must rely on a mishmash of volunteers and social service groups that provide food, clothes and medicine.
San Diego County Republicans are calling for greater restrictions at the southern border amid ongoing concerns about the terror threat in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel.